Sabathia beats Verlander, Yankees top Tigers 2-1

NEW YORK(AP) -- Justin Verlander followed the trajectory of the
ball and watched helplessly as Alex Rodriguez's opposite-field
fly settled softly into the second row of right-field seats.

All of a sudden, after six dominant innings, Verlander was
losing.

Welcome to the new Yankee Stadium.

CC Sabathia beat Verlander in a prime pitching matchup that
lived up to its billing, and Rodriguez's pop-fly homer sent the
New York Yankees to a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers on
Saturday.

"It's very frustrating," Verlander said. "It's very
disappointing to throw the ball as well as I did and come away
with a loss."

Sabathia (9-6) tossed seven shutout innings, working out of
trouble all afternoon for his eighth victory in 11 decisions.
Mariano Rivera got three quick outs for a save and Derek Jeter
made an outstanding defensive play in the ninth.

"The game had a feeling that one mistake, one pitch, one swing
was going to be the difference," Rodriguez said.

Melky Cabrera legged out an infield single to drive in the
second run against Verlander (10-5), who took a three-hit
shutout into the seventh before running into some tough luck.

Rodriguez led off with a high fly toward Yankee Stadium's short
right-field porch. Verlander watched it the whole way, then
smiled in disbelief after the ball carried over the fence.

"If it went out by 10 rows, all right. But just scraping the
back of the wall is frustrating. I'd rather a guy hit it 10
miles," Verlander said. "I didn't think he hit it very well, but
it had the right trajectory and he hit it to the right part of
the field."

It was Rodriguez's 571st home run, two behind Hall of Famer
Harmon Killebrew for ninth place.

"He's throwing 98 (mph)," Rodriguez said about Verlander, coming
off his second trip to the All-Star game. "I think he supplied a
lot of the power."

Robinson Cano singled with two outs and went to third on Nick
Swisher's soft double inside the left-field line. Cabrera hit a
slow roller to shortstop, with Swisher doing all he could to
distract Adam Everett as he crossed over to third.

"Very smart baseball," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.

Everett's throw appeared to beat Cabrera by the slimmest margin,
but he was called safe by first base umpire Jeff Nelson. Cabrera
clapped his hands as Cano scored, putting New York ahead 2-0.

Marcus Thames homered in the eighth off Alfredo Aceves, who
struck out two to set up Rivera for his 507th career save and
25th in 26 chances this season.

Jeter made a signature jump throw from deep in the shortstop
hole to get Brandon Inge for the second out of the ninth.

"That was an incredible play," Yankees first baseman Mark
Teixeira said. "He made such a strong throw. It was perfect."

The Yankees, who have won 15 of 20, are 40-22 since Rodriguez
came off the disabled list May 8 - the best record in the
majors. New York also improved to 18-5 against AL Central teams.

The first-place Tigers fell to 4-12 against the AL East.

"Hopefully, sweep them tomorrow," Sabathia said.

Verlander beat Sabathia on April 27, pitching seven shutout
innings with nine strikeouts and no walks to start his
seven-game winning streak.

This time, the right-hander yielded only two hits through his
first 5 2-3 innings - singles by Jeter in the first and fourth.

"That's as good as we've seen him. He was throwing every pitch
for strikes. He's added a slider to his repertoire," Rodriguez
said. "You just hope for a mistake. These guys, it's hard to
score three or four runs against guys like CC and Verlander. We
knew one or two runs would win the game."

A gritty Sabathia allowed five hits and three walks but stranded
seven runners. Pitching like the $161 million ace the Yankees
were counting on when they signed him, the big lefty also
induced a pair of double-play grounders.

With runners at second and third in the sixth, Sabathia retired
Ryan Raburn on a shallow fly and Inge on a soft looper.

"We had CC on the ropes a couple of times," Tigers manager Jim
Leyland said. "We just couldn't capitalize. Most people talk
about guys who have high on-base percentages, but I'd rather
take the guy who will drive them in."

NOTES: David Cone threw out the first pitch on the 10th
anniversary of his perfect game against the Montreal Expos at
old Yankee Stadium. His catcher in that game was the same one as
Saturday: Girardi. ... New York reliever Damaso Marte (left
shoulder inflammation) pitched a scoreless inning with two
strikeouts in his second rehab appearance for the Gulf Coast
League Yankees.